The outbreak began in March of 2011 but the source was not identified till 6 months later and then the USDA announced a recall of 36 million pounds of turkey meat, but only after 1 death had finally been reported. Effectively, there is likely to be little economic consequences for the supplier, only public embarrassment, because most of the contaminated meat has likely been cooked and consumed.

Before the days of grain-fed animals, grass-feeding produced more acidic digestive tracts in these animals and soil-based bacteria will killed off more easily, and then cooking and stomach acid in consumers killed off the remaining bacteria (foods are not sterile). Low bacteria and fungal counts in foods are required by US FDA and USDA regulations. But now bacterial counts are 100-fold higher and then more antibiotics are employed in animals, and then of course there are more antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that arise.